#Pennsylvania electric utilities develop policies for charging cars

Pennsylvania regulators are no strangers to what happens when new technology meets old regulations.

Uber, anyone?

This time, it’s electric vehicle charging stations, an emerging industry trying to find its footing and an economic model in Pennsylvania.

In an effort to encourage the growth of the industry, at least one utility — Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Light — is allowing charging station operators to resell its electricity, sometimes at a substantial markup.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission announced this week that it is exploring how electric utilities should treat these charging stations, which pull electricity from the grid and redistribute it to a number of clients. One thing the agency wants to know is if the model developed by Duquesne Light should serve as a model for a state standard.

While gasoline stations have about a century’s head start, the electric car charging stations are just moving from people’s garages to more commercial spaces in Pennsylvania. It may be a while before signs pop up on the corner advertising a price per kilowatt hour.

The Pittsburgh utility is the only one in Pennsylvania that has a specific policy for electric vehicle charging stations — it excuses them from regulations that say a customer can’t resell or redistribute the utility’s product. Those prohibitions were designed to prevent situations like a landlord charging tenants different rates than what a utility would charge.

But a few years ago, when a company called the Blink Network wanted to put an electric vehicle charging station into the Oakmont service plaza on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Duquesne Light had to make a decision — would it allow this company to not only redistribute its product but also charge more for per kilowatt hour of its customers than what it pays the utility?

He called up Duquesne Light and argued that it would be in the utility’s interest to clear the roadblocks for customers that would then use more electricity.

“Hey, they’re promoting this stuff,” he said.

In the end, Duquesne Light agreed. In 2014, several years before the utility would announce its plan to boost electric vehicles and related infrastructure in an effort to expand and accommodate its customer base, Duquesne Light changed its tariff to roll out the red carpet for charging stations.

It’s a balancing act, said Jamie Davis, director of rates at Duquesne Light.

“As a utility, we don’t want other people redistributing power,” he said. But, “It is something that our customers are asking us for. It’s certainly good for the environment. And we just want to make sure we’re ready for new technology.”

What might make the situation easier to swallow for utilities, at least for the time being, is that most of the 120 or so electric vehicle charging stations in southwestern Pennsylvania today don’t actually charge for their service, Price said.

Many are installed at commercial buildings or parking garages and allow free access.